Adam Kendrick interviews Cassie Wicks, writer of Sci-Fi Show, a musical comedy that celebrates Doctor Who and will be materialising at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, following its debut run at the Taylor Burton Studio in Oxford.

What are your earliest memories of Doctor Who?

My parents both liked the show as kids and watched it when it was revived, and so it was always something I was aware of growing up. I was only three when it was brought back, so I don’t remember the revival, but I remember it being such a big part of my childhood. Even before I watched it, me and my friends used to play Doctor Who (I was always Amy Pond!) Weirdly my first episode was The Day of the Doctor. I was ten and I immediately fell in love, and I’ve been watching ever since!

What inspired you to put on a musical about Doctor Who?

I remember growing up always thinking there should be a Doctor Who parody musical, then I figured if you want something done, you have to do it yourself! I’m also a big StarKid fan and always wanted to write a parody musical like A Very Potter Musical, which was definitely a major influence on the vibes of the show.

Sci-Fi Show as it exists was inspired by seeing both Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies in various talks in Oxford, and seeing how draining the experience seemed to have been. I think the Whovian fandom has a habit of really hating whoever the current showrunner is, only to decide afterwards they liked them all along, and John emerged from that. Meanwhile, Juliet is actually a character I dreamed of writing if I ever wrote for Doctor Who – someone who grew up and actually remembered all the crazy things that happen in the Whoniverse, who then actually got to travel with them. Finally, I think that Angela (essentially a Sarah Jane Smith homage) was what really made the play fall into place for me – she was one of the last characters I came up with, and basically exists because of a joke about Georgia Tennant I came up with… but she very rapidly became my absolute favourite character to write!

Was Sci-Fi Show your first time writing for a stage production?

No – I have written quite a few plays before, though this was my first musical. But this was the first time I was writing for a production – by the time I was writing the script, we had directors/crew/songwriters etc., and building from their ideas made it a really lovely collaborative experience compared to what I’ve done before.

What can you tell us about the actors who appeared in Sci-Fi Show?

Our Oxford cast was Aymen Aulawi (John B. Stevens), Sebastian Morson (the Professor), Sav Sood (Juliet), Caroline Young (Jenna/Angela), Sasha Ivanova (Garlic), and Kelsey DeJesus (Andrews). 

We put out our casting call in early Michaelmas 2023 to give an opportunity for Freshers to audition as well. A good proportion (50%) of our cast were Freshers, and we’re super grateful that we were able to be one of the first shows for some of our actors who have already been taking OUDS [Oxford University Dramatic Society] by storm since! You also might have seen various members of our cast in Breaking Bod, A Series of Lectures on Psychoanalysis: The Musical, and The Trail to Oregon, so they’ve clearly made parody musicals their forté.

There was quite a range in their Doctor Who knowledge – some were megafans, some had never even seen an episode! Aymen was probably our biggest Whovian in the cast and contributed more than a few little jokes and references to old Who in the script (an era of the show of which I must confess my knowledge was sorely lacking). The moment he walked through the door, he exuded Johnergy (think Kenergy, but more tired). Meanwhile Sasha, our ‘Garlic’, had actually never seen Doctor Who before – we had to show her a Dalek voice in the audition, but she absolutely knocked it out of the park!

All our cast were absolutely fantastic and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with them. We are going to the Fringe soon, which is very exciting, and have some new cast members joining – Freddie, Iona and Helen – who are also super great, and overall I am just happy to have had such amazing actors play these silly little characters I wrote!

What can you tell us about the people who worked behind the scenes?

There were so many fantastic people involved in the show that this will be a long answer! A lot of our crew are new to their roles – our director and producer had both initially contacted me about being assistants!  Overall, I think it’s a testament to how passionate our crew were about the idea that people really plunged themselves in the deep end, and I’m very grateful for the fantastic job they all did.

Our core production team was actually formed in a fairly unconventional way. I had no idea if the idea was something anyone would be interested in, and so rather than a proper crew call I posted the premise on the OUDS Facebook and asked if anyone was interested. I then started Technobabble, our production company, with our producer before we’d even met in person, and our producer, director and MD all committed before they’d ever read the script as it hadn’t been written. My first meeting with our director basically consisted of me saying “I think it will probably be like this” followed by half an hour of just chatting about Doctor Who. 

Our production team was led by our wonderful producer, Aleks Botek. The show was directed by Simone Balakrishna, with Maja Kowalewska as assistant director and Deanna Duff as musical director. I-Cenay Trim was our marketing manager, and also choreographed our wonderful Chicago-inspired dances!

Our music was led by our MD, Deanna Duff, and a couple more songwriters, myself, Rosie Field and Aleks Matkowska. Deanna also had the daunting task of arranging all of the music for our backing tracks, and rose to the challenge admirably, especially considering songs were still being written weeks before the show due to the quick Oxford turnaround! 

Our set and props designer was Emily, a friend of mine (who has still not forgiven me for springing prop design on her – sorry, Emily!) who made everything from a cardboard Space-Hopping Interplanetary Temporal Engine (our TARDIS), bod card inspired SHITE keys and a Garlic family photo. She was assisted by Kat Sergei who made some beautiful cardboard alien plants! Costumes were by Sam Forrest, assisted by Lexie Pert, who made/sourced everything from a Dalek costume with garlic cloves and a tutu to the most Rory Pond-coded gilet I’ve ever seen.

Our lighting designer is Libby, who did a fantastic job giving us some funky sci-fi lights – and who also is actually responsible for giving me the idea that Daleks should be called Garlics in the show! David Street did our sound design (putting up with designing an excessive number of gunshots), and Rei Ota stage managed. 

Finally, last but not least was our welfare officer Bella Bradshaw, who brought snacks to almost every rehearsal (turns out Tesco hummus is delicious!) and generally went above and beyond in making sure everyone was okay. Special bonus mention to our bonus show-week welfare rep, plushie Spacehog Ging-Interplanetary-Temporal-Pig (middle name Bella) who also did important work.

Did anything go wrong during the performances?

On our opening night, Aymen accidentally threw a notebook at the audience, and another night, one of the chairs broke in the middle of our Cell-Block-Tango inspired choreography! Our TARDIS backdrop was basically pinned up with tape, meaning it did just fall down a few times. But our cast did a fantastic job of improvising through it and making the scenes even funnier.

Quickfire Round

What do you love most about Doctor Who?

I love that there’s just so much of it – there’s an episode basically for whatever mood you’re in. I feel like its model is so compelling, too, because it mixes things up so often – which keeps it fresh, and has given us so many great characters – but also has a comforting familiarity.

Who’s your favourite Doctor?

Growing up it was Matt Smith, but now I’d probably go basic and say David Tennant. I have a soft spot for Capaldi and Whittaker though!

Who’s your favourite companion?

Donna Noble, easily (with Bill as a runner up!)

What’s your favourite Doctor Who episode?

Partners in Crime!

Sci-Fi Show will be performed at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 19th to August 24th, under its new title, ‘Professor Where’. Tickets are available at the time of publication.